Waste Management At Home Saves You Money and is Better for the Environment Here Are Some Hot Tips

Welcome to The Cherry On Top,

A lovely fan had a question about jalapeños on a previous blog and also mentioned that she too does not like waste. So, I'll address both. It goes perfect with what I was just doing which was cleaning out our little compost bin we've got in the kitchen, next to the sink. Fun!

This lid closes tightly leaving no smell.

We rarely use paper towels. Seriously, it probably takes us a year to get through a small roll. We only use them when something is mega, mega gross like puke and poop or super dirty. Otherwise, we use rags and wash them. I do use paper towels (white only, no ink) in the bottom of yucky garbage cans and my little compost bin. It helps make cleaning the containers a lot easier and the white paper towels are fine for in your compost bin as is most, ink free, white or brown paper. Line small bins with paper bags from your produce purchases.

I only put fruit, vegetables and old, moldy bread in our compost. Because we have some animals running around, we throw meat products in our county's compost bin along with big greenery and sticks from the yard. Our chickens devour most of the "good" food waste like old, left over rice, meats and even some sauces. Cut up the core of your apples, pears and or seeds from peppers, oranges, etc and give them to your flock and other birds. They eat just about everything which saves us an unbelievable amount of garbage. 

Just the spinach came in a plastic bag.

Let's say our garbage bags (Yes, our county still uses bags and not roller cans. I know?!) are 45 liters or 12 gallons. It takes us an entire month and sometimes longer to fill one bag. Our county did recently change our recycling system to include nearly all plastics which was a huge help. We have to pay per bag for both garbage and recycles. I kind of appreciate that because we get "rewarded" for being conscious of our waste. How refreshing?!

We don't have to pay anything for them to come and take our paper which gives me huge incentive to buy stuff in paper and not plastic. Again, a kind of reward. Be a conscious shopper when purchasing items. Above, I have a few paper bags from produce I purchased. It is tough finding items not wrapped and suffocating in plastic. I buy laundry soap in a paper container and any other cleaners I can find. As you may know, I rarely use chemical cleaners or beauty products that comes in plastic. Shampoo bars and bars of soap can be packaged in paper. It might sound tricky, but it gets easier as you go. Just as long as you make a start.

Also, there are a lot of microplastics in our foods due to packaging and they've recently found that plastic is miraculously penetrating through the blood brain barrier. What isn't lately? So, eliminating plastic from your life has become even more pertinent.

These are my jalapeños from the green house. They didn't make it anywhere else and they are still there in January despite the freezing temperatures.

The large compost bin out back will turn into fertilizer for our garden and green house. We've got a mega easy, cheap compost system. Click here to check it out and learn more about chickens and your garden.

I just saw that someone has her kids put their junk paper through a shredder and they use that for in the chicken coop. What a great idea! Just watch out for inks and dyes.

I throw the girls fresh fruit and veg bits that we don't eat. What they don't eat gets raked up and thrown into the compost. Easy peasy!

Let's get back to those jalapeños. They are one of my favorite spicy peppers and I don't know if it is a fluke or what, but they are one of the few things I planted in the green house that is thriving. It's January and the plant itself is finally looking a bit wilted after weeks of freezing temperatures, but the fruit is still perfect. I never have to harvest the peppers because the chickens and all of the critters that might get in the green house are leaving it alone. Slugs can be an issue in warmer temperatures, I've found.

If you were to have to use them in bulk, here are some ideas for you.

Pickled Jalapenos (Here's a recipe for a sweet one.)

Jalapeno Hot Sauce (This one has pineapple!)

Jalapeno Poppers (This recipe has bacon. OMG!)

Hot Pepper Honey (One of my go to sites. This one sounds amazing.)

Bacon, Jalapeno Deviled Eggs (Maybe with a little avocado?)

Put jalapeños in your hummus, on your tacos, in breads with cheese, in quesadillas, egg rolls, salsas, soup, jalapeño butter and even jalapeño salt. See! No worries with those bumper crops. If I missed something amazing, link us up. (And I don't mean the missing Spanish accent. Sometimes it shows up and sometimes it doesn't. Hehehe...)

When you get a really good plant, like the one I currently have, keep those seeds. I'll be trying to grow more. I only need one plant for the four of us, but I'll try to grow a few. I can always give them to neighbors that like it hot.

So, there you have a few waste tips and ideas for how to use up those awesome jalapeños. I hope you found it helpful. Keep up the good work in that winter garden of yours and if you're not already mindful of waste, start thinking more about it with your purchases.

Thanks for checking out The Cherry!